Marin Independent Journal
Thursday, March 26, 1998
Thoroughly Southern Jill
by Michael Miller

AIthough Jill Carole says she has probably been writing songs since she could talk, at one point she tried to become a novelist – unsuccessfully.

"I didn't like all the time and solitude it took," she explains.

Instead, Carole prefers the immediacy of music and the gratification of performing. Raised on Beethoven, Mozart and the Beatles by her mother, an opera singer. Carole says 'there was always music around" when she was a kid.

Now that her husband guitarist/producer Paul Robinson has pulled Carole out of her self-described "reclusive shell." it looks like she won't have to worry about feeling solitary anytime soon. She was recently signed to a U.K. label, Mystic Records, and will be embarking on her very first tour this May in England, as a supporting act for former Zombies lead singer, Colin Blunstone.

Band name: Jill Carole

Type of music: Moody pop with Southern belle-isms.

Musicians and their hometowns: Jill Carole, Corte Madera. Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala.

CDs: "The Easter Bunny, Sex and Santa Claus," which is available at Borders, Tower and Amoeba. Produced by Paul C. Robinson (guitarist for Al Stewart and Dan Hicks) and Steve Savage (recorder and mixer of three Grammy-nominated Robert Cray albums).

Next shows: Thursday April 9 at New George's, San Rafael; Tuesday April 14 at Sweetwater, Mill Valley; Wednesday April 15 at The Freight and Salvage, Berkeley; Wednesdav April 22 at The Paradise Lounge, San Francisco; Friday April 24 at Borders Books and Music, San Rafael; Wednesday April 19 at Hotel Utah, San Francisco.

Day jobs? I am a professional slacker. But... currently, I'm recording new songs during the day with Paul Robinson and Steve Savage. My former day job was as a test subject for a sleep researcher. That's when I was a professional sleeper.

Musical influences: The Beatles, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Sylvia Plath, Beethoven, the Pretenders.

What do you do after the show? Buy all the fans a few rounds of drinks, sell massive quantities of CDs, circuit train, read a Dickens novel, sleep with the guitar player (my husband), dream.

Hobbies/interests: Sleeping with the guitar player (my husband), film, novels, snorkeling, animal rights, animal dreams, mind reading.

Web site: I can be visited at www.jillcarole.com. There are samples of the CD, photos, CD ordering information and supplemental band biographies.